Calling All Misty Fans! This Sunday is your first ever chance to meet Shirley Bellwood, the amazing illustrator of the long-running British girls’ comic Misty‘s spooky hostess at Comica Festival at the British Library Book it!

A painter, illustrator and author, Shirley began her work for British girls’ comics in the 1950s, working on titles such as Valentine, Romeo, Mirabelle and Roxy.

She’s illustrated for many publishers, including the Folio Society, and drew covers for Misty in the 1980s, a comic on which Pat Mills served as associate editor, shaping it into what could broadly be described as a girl-targeted 2000AD as a rival to DC Thomson’s Spellbound, replacing science ficton with supernatural horror.

Today, she’s well-known as a portrait painter, painting Speakers of the House of Commons Thomas George Thomas (Lord Tonypandy) and Bernard Weatherill, and having major exhibitions at the Contemporary Portrait Society and Royal Portrait Society. She also paints still life.

As an author, illustrator of children’s books and young adult books, some of her published credits include Towns and Cities (Step-By-Step Geography), Mike’s Lonely Summer: A Child’s Guide : Divorce (Lion Care) and King for Ever! (Junior African).

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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, John describes himself as is a "freelance comics operative", currently working as a freelance editor for TITAN COMICS, as Creative Consultant on the new DAN DARE audio adventures for B7 Media, and on promotional work for the LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL and LANCASTER COMICS DAY. John has worked in British comics publishing for over 30 years, starting out at Marvel UK, where he edited a number of the Genesis 1992 books with Paul Neary. His numerous credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine at Marvel and Star Trek Magazine and Babylon 5 Magazine at Titan Magazines, where he was Managing Editor. He also edited STRIP Magazine and worked as an editor on several audio comics for ROK Comics, including TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E. and THE BEATLES STORY. Most recently he is writing CRUCIBLE as a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz, published on Tapastic; and DEATH DUTY and SKOW DOGS with Dave Hailwood for the digital comic 100% Biodegradable.